It isn’t every day that the CPO of a major company sits alongside its CEO and CFO at a press conference to announce its latest financial results. But that’s exactly what happened at Siemens in Berlin this morning. Barbara Kux – one of the top 50 most powerful women in world business, according to Fortune magazine – did a double act with her CEO and boss Peter Loscher in front of the assembled media, giving a brief overview of the procurement strategy she has been pursuing since the start of the year. (For full details, see my story and exclusive interview comments on the CPO Agenda website.)
Loscher, as you might expect, had the starring role and did most of the talking (entirely in German), but fellow managing board member Kux was very much the leading lady. Indeed, CFO Joe Kaeser was reduced to the role of supporting actor, speaking only briefly a couple of times later in the hour-long event to answer journalists’ questions. Now there’s something else you don’t see every day – especially when the main purpose was to present results and give a half-year update on the company’s business performance.
Kux, like Loscher, gave a carefully scripted presentation and seemed relaxed and confident performing in front of the cameras. But she was uber careful not to give much away in terms of specific details (like how much her team is being tasked to deliver in cost savings to help prop up Siemens’ declining profits – although analysts reckon it’s probably in the order of €2 billion, or 5 per cent of total purchasing spend). This caution carried through to our brief interview afterwards, when she glanced frequently at her press minder before giving me fairly bland answers to pretty specific questions.
Still, I can’t say I blame her. With procurement under the spotlight and in the media glare to this degree, an ill-advised comment could have a direct and negative effect on Siemens’ languishing share price. Kux is media shy at the best of times and I doubt very much she’ll be giving too many more interviews until she’s got concrete results to talk about. But it will be interesting to see if she again takes centre stage at the company’s next major press conference in the autumn.
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